Rebels 6 Pats 0
REGINA — The Red Deer Rebels appear to have hit their stride on their four-game Eastern swing through Saskatchewan.
The Rebels won their fourth Western Hockey League game in a row Saturday — all on the road — by whipping the Regina Pats 6-0.
The Rebels got a huge game from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who had three points (1g,2a) and Byron Froese who tallied twice.
The game got ugly quick and never improved for the Pats
The Rebels scored four times in the first period as they out shot the home team 15-6 and never looked back.
Froese got things going with his 18th of the season from Aaron Borejko and Justin Weller at 7:14. Nugent-Hopkins then chipped in with his 12th of the year from Alex Petrovic and Colin Archer at 15:02. Froese made it 3-0 with his 19th from Petrovic and Nugent-Hopkins on a power play at 17:34 and then rookie blueline Matt Dumba stretched the Rebels’ lead to four goals with his 12th from Andrej Kudrna and Archer at 18:25.
Kudrna got in on the act with his 18th of the season from Adam Kabeitz at 13:36 of the second period and John Persson capped the scoring with his 16th of the campaign from Borejko and Nugent-Hopkins.
The lead was far more than Rebels goalie Darcy Kuemper needed as he made 24 saves to post his league leading eighth shutout of the season and 14th of his Rebels career — both franchise records. It was also his second shutout of the road trip, previously blanking the Moose Jaw Warriors 4-0 this past Wednesday In the process he improved several other league leading stats including his record to 28-8-1-2, goals against average to 1.80 and save percentage to 0.933.
The Rebels can sweep Saskatchewan portion of their trip today when they play the Swift Current Broncos (23-24-0-1) at 6 p.m. Expect backup goalie Dawson Guhle to get the start.
The Rebels will conclude their six-game absence from the Centrium with a contest in Medicine Hat (27-13-2-0) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and then finally return home the next day to host the Moose Jaw Warriors (26-17-0-2) at 7:30 p.m.